Building LibreWolf from source:

First, let's download the latest tarball. This tarball is the latest produced by the CI.

To download the latest from a script, use wget/curl like this:

wget -O librewolf-95.0.2-2.source.tar.gz https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/source/-/jobs/artifacts/main/raw/librewolf-95.0.2-2.source.tar.gz?job=build-job
curl -L -o librewolf-95.0.2-2.source.tar.gz https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/source/-/jobs/artifacts/main/raw/librewolf-95.0.2-2.source.tar.gz?job=build-job

Next, we create ourselves a build folder and extract the tarball.

mkdir build
cd build
tar xf ../librewolf-95.0.2-2.source.tar.gz

Next step, if you have not done so already, you must create the build environment:

librewolf-95.0.2/lw/mozfetch.sh

It takes about an hour for me to complete, but it needs to be done only once. This step might fail and cause problems. Hack a bit, and if that fails you can ask on our Gitter/Matrix channels.

Now we're ready to actually build LibreWolf:

cd librewolf-95.0.2
./mach build

Also takes me an hour. Then, we can run it:

./mach run

Or make a package:

./mach package

I want to keep up to date with the latest, but compile myself

1. To first clone the repo:

git clone https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/source.git
cd source
make librewolf

2. To keep up-to-date:

git pull
make librewolf

[dev info] How to use this repo instead of Common:

Since the dawn of time, we have used Common to get patches, source_files, including source_files/{branding}

This source repo supports all that, because it uses these same things to produce the tarball. As far as I can tell, the mapping from Common to Source would be:

• patches -> patches
• source_files/search-config.json -> assets/search-config.json
• source_files/browser/branding/librewolf -> themes/browser/branding/librewolf

With this mapping, I hope that other builders that can't use our tarball (afterMozilla project, weird distro's), still use the same source/patches as the builders that do use it.

Another feature

The file assets/patches.txt defines what patches go in. These are not the only patches a builder will use, weird distro's etc, will use additional patches. those patches can live in the repo of that distro, or in a subfolder here. I hope this gives everybody the freedom to build anyway they please, like in Common, but with the added benefit that we produce a source tarball.

Implementing a build script the new way:

The repository has a short example shell script on how to use the new-style tarball approach instead of the older patching-it-yourself approach.

[dev info] Building the LibreWolf source tarball:

Luckly, you don't need the build environment for this. If you don't have write access, just:

git clone https://gitlab.com/librewolf-community/browser/source.git
cd source
make all

If you do have write access, we're first gonna check for a newer version of Firefox:

git clone git@gitlab.com:librewolf-community/browser/source.git
cd source
make check

If there is a new version, it's a good time to git commit and trigger a CI build job.

git commit -am v$(cat version)-$(cat release) && git push

To build the source archive:

make all

If you have a working build environment, you can build librewolf with:

make librewolf

This extracts the source, and then tries to ./mach build && ./mach package.

FAQ: Common issues when setting up the Mozilla build environment

1. it doesnt find a suitable python.

export MACH_USE_SYSTEM_PYTHON=1
make librewolf

2. requires <python-package-2, which is not installed.

pip3 install <python-package=2>

And retry.